Potion-making (sage ability)

Potion-making is an expert-status sage ability in the studies of Alchemy and Magic Fabrication, enabling the character to prepare magical potions. At first, the ability gives the character access only to the most common forms of potion-making, these being the potions whose recipes are least demanding and whose requirements are most readily understood. Then, as further knowledge is acquired, more difficult varieties become possible, until every known form of potion falls within the character's grasp. The sage ability does not permit exploration into forms of potion that do not already exist; pursuit of such knowledge is permitted only to those able to perform intense magical research.

Potion-making inherently includes obstacles that ordinary sage abilities do not. Though the character may know the recipe, the ingredients themselves may not come easily to hand. Some must be cured or refined in ways that can take weeks or even months, while any single additive may require steeping, drying, grinding, soaking, rendering, distilling, fermenting, macerating, clarifying or reducing. These processes may be unpleasant, unnerving or even dangerous, depending upon the desired end product.

Nonetheless, some success is nearly always certain. Batches of 7-12 flasks are quite normal, and even if a recipe is spoiled in some way, it is still likely that some part of the product can be saved and put to use. Potion-making is not a boondoggle in which the character spends six months rolling dice only to come away with nothing. Rather, it is a series of feasible hoops that can be jumped through, with the assurance that the time spent will not be wasted, at least not wholly. Further, each time the same recipe is attempted, the maker is presumed to become better at it. This improvement does not remove the need for rare ingredients, lengthy preparation or difficult handling, but it does mean that repetition has value, and that practice steadily increases the maker's command of the work.

Potion Advancement

Potions Familiar by Knowledge Points

Knowledge Points (hp)	Potions
60	healing, philter of love, sweetwater
66	animal control, clairaudience, delusion, fire resistance, levitation, plant control, polymorph self, speed
69	clairvoyance, climbing, diminution, extra-healing, growth, invisibility, invulnerability
72	flying, gaseous form, heroism, oil of slipperyness, philter of persuasiveness, super-heroism
76	ESP, human control, longevity, oil of etherealness, treasure finding, water breathing
88	frost giant strength, hill giant control or strength, stone giant strength, undead control
97	cloud giant strength, fire giant control or strength, frost or stone giant control
105	black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, green or white dragon control, storm giant strength
111	cloud giant control, red or silver dragon control, evil dragon control
118	gold dragon control, storm giant control
120	good dragon control

When the character gathers sufficient knowledge, 60 points, the potion-making sage ability permits just those potions for which sufficient points are had. With each level gained, it's probable that the ability to make more potions will be gained in turn, at least until the difficult of certain potions become greatly more difficult to make. Including the actual recipes for these potions here would be counterproductive, as many are dense and involved, requiring uncommon substances, exacting preparation and circumstances that vary widely from one potion to another. Therefore, each potion's manufacture is given within that potion’s own description, where the recipe can be treated in full.

Laboratory

While a traditional laboratory will serve valuably in most situations regarding the making of lower-tier potions, as difficulty increases the character will find that ordinary apparatus is not always sufficient. Certain potions may require rare vessels, purified furnaces, sealed glass, silvered tools, sanctified water, particular phases of the moon, absolute darkness, running water, fresh blood, living roots or other circumstances that cannot be assumed from the mere possession of a laboratory.

This does not mean that the character is unable to make more complicated potions, only that as the work becomes more particular, larger rooms and additional apparati may be required, including cooling baths, even cages for living specimens may be needed. This can be determined as the making of each potion creates its special needs going forward.

An assistant may also become necessary as the scale and delicacy of the work increases. Though the character already possesses the knowledge needed to direct the manufacture, the need to do more things at one time than can be managed alone, or to allow periods of rest, lesser tasks may be entrusted to a magewright's prentice who can tend fires, clean vessels, grind substances, maintain cages, watch timing and carry out repeated operations under instruction. Such help does not replace the character's own ability, nor can it be used to make potions the prentiss cannot possibly understand; it merely increases the number of possible things that might be made while lessening the degree of stress.

Potion Flasks

One consideration that every potion-maker must consider is the vessel into which the potion is poured, once it has been created. Magical potions cannot be stored in an ordinary bottle, jar or skin, as such containers lack the qualities needed to retain the enchantment once the draught has been finished. Without a proper vessel, the magic soon escapes the fluid, leaving the contents inert and ordinary.

To ensure duration, the potion must be placed in a specially made ceramic potion flask, formed and glazed by a maker whose knowledge lies in ceramics rather than alchemy. Such a flask is not manufactured by the potion-maker as part of the brewing process, but obtained from one skilled in the proper shaping, firing and modelling of magical vessels. Potion-making is therefore dependent upon more than one art, requiring the alchemist or fabricator to prepare the draught, while another artisan supplies the means by which its virtue is preserved.

See Founding a Laboratory